Kim Cooper

Noogie @jbwallingford.bsky.social for me if you see him :)

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

Because you're as astonished as I am that the limb is so marvelously complex that we still haven't figured it all out?

And "Individuals enrolled in joint bachelor’s-master’s degree programs are considered graduate students. For GRFP, joint bachelor’s-master’s degrees are defined as degrees concurrently pursued and awarded."

Under Eligibility: "First-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program (according to institution’s academic calendar)"

Hugely problematic that 2nd year PhD students are no longer eligible. It also seems that concurrent BS/MS students are considered graduate students during their senior year of the BS and so would have one year of eligibility.

I was pleased to hear my fourth grader's teacher challenged them to read 40 chapter books this academic year, but she's in an IB school...

Signed. I was also a GRFP recipient.

I was on H-1B after my J-1. This new fee is terrible. Forget going home for a family emergency. Forget fieldwork. Forget conferences. Living abroad on a job-tied visa is stressful enough already. I hardly recognize the country that was my home for 9 years.

Current events are getting me back into the best shape of my life...

So excited!!!

So proud of you!!

But look at how nicely all those letters line up

Oh, but I am writing a survey to try to get that info...

Not trying to

And UCSD Biology lecture courses currently get one graduate TA regardless of enrollment.

True but biomed programs rely on the undergrad campus for teaching opportunities, and we prioritize placing our own first.

But we haven't had this come up since the policy change...

No, the first advisor pays while the student completes short rotation to secure a new lab.

I mean, it was my preference. I didn't join the lab I thought I would...

And you did say "occasional"...we recently made the transition period the financial responsibility of the first advisor.

Director of the UCSD Biology PhD program here, and this is a bit of an exaggeration. All of our students have placed in labs, at least in recent years, and lab transitions are still relatively rare.

Rotation programs were a luxury of the good NIH funding years.

But also year round teaching assistantships for graduate support are the norm in evolution and ecology and not (yet) in general/biomedical PhD programs...

Correct, and in evolution and ecology this is the typical path of programs nation-wide. It is not (yet) in the general/biomedical sciences. So even the advantages and limitations are different and themselves complex.

The PI takes the student directly into their lab and is financially responsible from day 1. No rotations. These students are often graduates of the same institution and may have been a tech in the lab who decided to pursue a PhD. I have complex thoughts about all of this.

Hearing rumor of a 2/3rds reduction in admissions to a graduate program. “The rest are made up by direct admits.”

This is an inevitable response to financial pressures caused by unionized salary gains, NIH chaos and overall funding uncertainty.

Yeah, something was forwarded to me this morning "clarity of purpose" and "systemic meaningful change"...

Wait, whut?

I'm a bit late to the party over here. I'll be advertising a BBSRC-funded postdoc position soon. So if anyone wants to solve some outstanding questions in limb development - please get in touch. We have a variety of models and approaches (everything from stem cells to sharks). towerslab.weebly.com